Of Friendships and Beer
by Zabby Perno
Summary: Add Connor Temple to truth serum and what do you get? Cutter giving Connor beer to get him to loosen up after Tom dies. And one heck of a hangover.


**Name:** Of Friendships and Beer

**Beta:** LAB Rats, Nick Nagisa, duchessfaleen

**Author:** Forensic Fan '93

**Genre:** Hurt/Comfort, Humor

**Characters:** Nick Cutter, Connor Temple

**Mentioned:** David, Mirana, Tom, Duncan

**Set after:** Series 1, Episode 4.

**Word Count:** 1,160 words minus the author's note.

**Summary:** Add Connor Temple to truth serum and what do you get? Cutter giving Connor beer to get him to loosen up after Tom dies. And one heck of a hangover.

"I can't do this anymore," Connor said, tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.

"Hey we need you. There are a handful of people who know what we're dealing with here and you're one of them. He'd have loved it. So you can't get out now. Okay?" his professor, Nick Cutter, said, shaking Connor gently.

"Okay."

Cutter murmured, "Now, c'mere."

Connor collapsed into his Professor's arms and choked out a few tears—something he hadn't done since he left home. Since he had left his twin brother to fend for himself.

The Professor said, "I don't want you going to your flat tonight. You're coming to my flat." Before Connor could protest, he said, "You won't go somewhere alone."

He didn't give anyone any time to protest, and dragged his student off to his car. "Abby, give Stephen a ride to his flat."

Again, Cutter didn't give anyone any time to listen to any responses that might have been given.

Cutter hustled Connor inside and sat him down on the couch. "Sit, stay, and behave," he said, talking like he would to a dog… Or one of his students.

Knowing better than to disobey that voice, Connor did just what his professor had ordered. Cutter came back from the kitchen with two bottles of beer, already opened. He took a drink of his as Connor took a sip of the one offered to him.

Connor hated beer. Hated it with a passion, but right now? If it got him drunk enough to forget about…Tom…He'd be happy. "Damn… What I wouldn't give for my brother's tea right now…" He took another drink.

"Brother?"

"Yeah… David's back home, running the business…" Connor said. "A Tea Shoppe." He wasn't going to expand on the type of tea his brother sold, but let his boss think it was regular tea.

"He creates his own then?" Cutter asked, setting his beer on the coffee table in front of them.

It took Connor a second to realize _what_ his boss was talking about. "Yeah. Grows his own plants and everything. He's got a head for business just like I've got a head for science. I can only hope everything is going alright back home. I haven't been home in ten years…"

What Connor didn't realize was that Cutter had slipped some truth drug into the beer.

"Why not?"

"Because it isn't safe. Some people were way too interested in the work I was doing and I had to leave." Despite the drug, there were some things too deeply engrained in his psyche to reveal it unconsciously.

Cutter nodded. "And you haven't had contact with your brother since?"

"Nope." He popped the 'p' sound.

The Professor nodded. "Is this David older or younger than you?"

Connor grinned. "Older. By five minutes. Five bloody minutes."

"Twins? And you both didn't go into the same business?" Cutter asked, taking another pull off the bottle.

"Hell no! Dave would go nuts in the lab. Absolutely bonkers…" The 28-year-old grinned. "Hell of a conman though. He could sell ice to a bloody Eskimo."

Cutter snorted. It sounded like David and Connor were total opposites. How they had survived each other for 18 years together, he didn't want to know. He suspected they were either really close or hated each other's guts. He went with the latter because Connor wouldn't be so reminiscent about the man. "You left home at 18? What'd you do then?"

Connor shrugged and took another long sip. "Got a job. Decided I needed to go to college. I was saving up for it until about six of years ago. It was when I met T-Tom and Duncan."

The Professor noted that he really didn't know this member of his team really well at all. "So you didn't grow up with them?"

"God, no. Dave would have killed them within two minutes of meeting them. I don't even want to think about what my Da would have done… Or my Mum… Or Aunt Mirana. Mally would have stabbed them through the foot with that hatpin of hers. Thack would have thrown everything within reach at them… Well, actually, Aunt Mirana would have welcomed them with open arms… What with her vow and all…" Connor mused.

Cutter raised an eyebrow. "Aunt Mirana? Vow?"

"Well, she's not really my aunt. Although she would have loved to have Mum as her sister and not the sister she does have. She made a vow, when her sister went Mad, to never hurt a living creature."

"Interesting vow," his boss noted. "She was afraid of becoming insane herself if she did something, right?"

"Hell yeah! Y'know, Cutter, you're the first person that I didn't have to explain that too."

Nick ignored that. "Where'd you grow up?"

Connor snorted. "You'll never believe this… A palace in…" he paused, remembering his promise—and promises held power—not to tell anyone the name 'Wonderland' unless they already knew about it existing in reality. "Northern England. Dave and I moved out when we were 17. We needed to get out of there… So we moved to a town on a lake."

It was the lie so deeply engrained in his head that it bypassed all the truth serum money could buy… Or steal in some cases.

Silence fell for a few minutes. Then…

"Why don't you go see your brother?"

Connor shook his head. "To dangerous for me to go back…" He sighed. "Not that I wouldn't like to see him… But it's too bloody dangerous." He reached into his wallet and pulled out an old picture. "That's David on the right. I'mma on the left. Or is Dave on the left…?"

Cutter took the proffered picture. The two of them were smiling at the camera. It must have been taken just before the brothers had left their hometown, because they were both wearing button down shirts, vests, some trousers similar to jeans, and the bloody fedora that Connor was so fond of.

It explained why the kid was so fond of the stupid thing, Cutter thought. It reminded him of his brother.

He went to hand the picture back to Connor, but found the kid asleep, snoring softly.

Cutter smiled gently. When had he come to care for the kid like a nephew or a son? That was something he and Helen had never really talked about… Kids… Would they have turned out like Connor? Or like Stephen? Or like Abby, a mix of both.

He grabbed a blanket and an extra pillow. He placed the pillow on one end and laid his student down gently. He covered him with the pillow.

—•—•—•— The Next Morning —•—•—•—

Connor woke up with a throbbing headache to see two bottles of pills and two glasses of water… Why was everything double…? Then he realized it. While he and David may not be susceptible to the Tea, they sure as hell were to alcohol…


End file.
